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The ruler of Dubai’s princess wife allegedly had a two-year affair with her married British bodyguard — and paid at least $6.4 million to try to keep it quiet, according to a report.
Princess Haya’s cheating was exposed in a child-custody fact-finding ruling in London’s High Court that said she “embarked upon an adulterous relationship with one of her male bodyguards,” according to the Daily Mail.
The court ruling didn’t initially identify the bodyguard, but the Daily Mail reports that the 46-year-old princess allegedly seduced Russell Flowers, 37, with a slew of luxury gifts including a $16,000 watch and a $66,000 vintage shotgun.
She also allegedly paid him $1.6 million to keep it from her then-husband, Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates Sheikh Mohammed Al Maktoum, sources told the outlet.
Haya — the daughter of the late King of Jordan — also paid the same amount to buy silence from three of Flowers’ fellow Dubai royal family bodyguards who knew about the alleged affair that started in 2016, the Mail reported, without naming sources.
“It was an open secret among the team that he was involved with her,” sources at the Sheikh’s 3,000-acre estate of Dalham Hall in Suffolk reportedly told the UK outlet.
The cheating was soon exposed, however, destroying the bodyguard’s four-year marriage — and forcing the terrified princess to flee Dubai with her two children after being confronted by her husband in 2018, the report said.
During the Sheikh’s attempts to get custody of their 11-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son, the UK court ruled that he inflicted a “campaign of intimidation” against Haya and taunted her over the affair, the Mail said.
It included divorcing her without telling her, having guns left in her bedroom and trying to have her abducted by helicopter, the report said.
“Haya should be ashamed of the way she went after a married man. There is no excuse,” a family friend of Flowers and his now-ex-wife told the Daily Mail.
“It was because of her wealth and power that she was able to do this. Many lives have been ruined because of this affair,” the friend said.
“Russell should be ashamed of the way he treated his wife. His behavior was disgusting,” the friend said of the former soldier.
“The divorce left her shattered and it has taken a long time for her to get over the betrayal,” the friend added of his now-ex-wife, who was not identified.
Flowers and his ex-wife both refused to talk to the Mail. The three other guards alleged to have been paid $1.6 million hush-money were barred from discussing the affair or their work with the Dubai royal family, the outlet said, while not identifying them.
The princess married Sheikh Mohammed in 2004, becoming his sixth and “junior wife” until their divorce last year. She now lives in a $113 million home in one of London’s most exclusive neighborhoods, Kensington, with their two children, the Mail said.
During the drama, the Sheikh had posted a poem online accusing an unidentified woman of “treachery and betrayal.”
Messages left for representatives for the Sheikh as well as his princess ex were not immediately returned Friday.
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